Work From Home Trends: Future of Remote Working

For the past few years, companies have extensively shifted to working from home. Apparently, telecommuting integration turns out to be deeper than we all expected.

It is clear now that online work from home is going to be the “new normal” in 2024 and beyond. On the other hand, Omdia states that about 48% of the entire workforce will use a hybrid work model in the next two years. To stay on track, you need to keep your eye on upcoming changes.

In this article, we collected the main remote work trends to help you better adapt to the new realities of life. Here, you will also learn the key reasons why remote working is the future.

Telecommuting is here to stay: why remote working is the future?

Clear benefits of telecommuting for both employees and employers will make the future of remote working to be lasting. According to the CodeSubmit, 86% of managers believe working from home is the future.

Hybrid working gives you a flexible approach that allows you to split your time between working in the office and working from home. Therefore, surveys show that employees need informal or social interactions, formal personal meetings, and better work organization.

Likewise, Gallup’s statistics for the future of work from home say that 59% of employees prefer hybrid remote-office work. So, it is worth paying attention to this one of the remote work trends 2024 world needs.

As a result, the hybrid work model allows companies to implement effective strategies that focus on employee well-being. On the other hand, companies that fail to adopt a hybrid remote-office work risk losing valuable talent in the long run.

Employees can easily manage their schedules and allocate enough time for personal and family commitments. By keeping your workload and meetings manageable during your days at the office, you avoid burnout and promote better mental health and a healthier work-life balance.

Source: Gallupʼs

So what are the main reasons for such a tendency? In a nutshell, working from home opens additional perks for entrepreneurs and the workforce. As a result, it enhances the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of doing business remotely.

To be more exact, work from home opportunities for employees cover the following:

• Flexible working hours during the week: better life-work balance.
• No need for a daily long-distance commute.
• Less stressful home-office environment.
• Location independence when choosing a new employer.

In our practice, we also deliver unique and powerful software products. For example, when we created a global online hiring platform for recruiters and organizations for RecruitEverywhere, customers left their feedback.

As for entrepreneurs, they have got such distance work opportunities as:

• Lower overall business costs (real estate, utility payments);
• More minor expenses for business trips;
• Lower prices for compensation and benefits;
• Higher employee productivity;
• Short-term sickness absence of staff;
• Opportunity to hire talents overseas.

Yet, employers need to get through some challenges to benefit from remote work trends. As such, loneliness and difficulty focusing are among the top factors to hinder a thriving future of remote working.

Source: Statista.com

Trends in remote working vs. in the office

Telecommuting tools adoption

Straightforward and fast remote collaboration became one of the telecommuting trends when the pandemic started. Thus, many companies had to rethink their communication frameworks. As a result, the issue of appropriate remote work software is on the agenda in 2024 and beyond.

Recommended reading: Hot Mobile Application Development Trends for Your Business in 2024

The increased adoption of telecommuting tools has entailed associated remote work trends. Notably, there is greater demand for apps’ productivity tracking and technical support now. Yet, video conferencing is still a central workplace in remote work technology trends.

Employees who had rarely used video conferencing already appreciated its value as one of the telecommuting trends. It helps them understand their colleagues better and make more accurate work decisions. Likewise, video calls help staff be more engaged at meetings. For example, you can select Zoom plans to make your video calls and remote work convenient.

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Corporate cybersecurity

The need for advanced cybersecurity is another IT-related remote work trend empirical. It is not a coincidence that companies building a SaaS product emphasize on the security of the products they deliver.

Mimecast reports that remote workers and customers agree that cybersecurity has become increasingly more important now than before the pandemic. In 2023, 51% of the firms surveyed by IDG plan to spend more time on security management activities.

Also, according to a Gartner report, 66% of the global enterprises are going to increase their investment in cybersecurity in 2024.

In particular, virtual desktops and remote desk biometric identification can enhance cybersecurity today. Yet, companies should have a structured approach to IT operations to be on guard now. So, the future of telecommuting is with cybersecurity.

Hybrid or online work from home is a breeding ground for data security risks, especially for business owners. According to SoSafe data, in 2023, more than 85% of cyber-attacks are initiated by the human factor. Emotional manipulation of the workforce is one of the main elements of easy information hacking.

On the eve of 2024, Varonis.com has compiled a list of some interesting statistics regarding cybersecurity in remote work trends, such as:

• The global information security market is expected to reach;
• A tiny proportion of company folders are appropriately protected;
• More than half of companies are not able to cope with all complex cyber attacks remotely;
• Less than half of companies have a lack of active protection against cyber attacks;
• Also, approximately 22 billion different records of information were revealed.

To further guarantee a sustainable level of your cybersecurity when working from home, you have to observe а basic things:

1. Apply multi-factor authentication.
2. Use the least privilege principle in access control.
3. Maintain current software versions.
4. Always use anti-malware tools.
5. Try to protect all confidential company data.

Related reading: SaaS Security Guide: How to Protect Your Product and User Data

Social shifts

In 2024 the online work from home will once again prove that employees are no longer obliged to live in the world's largest cities in search of the most competitive work. Remote workers can efficiently operate with their skill sets and income in much smaller or poorer areas of the country.

According to the SSRN report, from 2020 to 2021, about 12% of relocations were caused by COVID-19. Remote workers have moved to smaller cities due to lower costs of living, lower taxes, and restrictions related to the pandemic. Therefore, Pew Research Center states that since 2020, the percentage of those who moved from their place of work has increased from 9% to 17%.

Source: Pew Research Center

Moreover, it is expected that in 2024, the remote work trends stats will reflect that employees will start to love their work more. For example, they will not feel like office planktons who drag routine work from office to home.

According to the Tracking Happiness report, working from home made people 20% happier on average. As a result, the cooperation and well-being of employees increased by 3% each day of remote work. In 2024, we will see increased job satisfaction and happiness as the culture of full time remote work becomes increasingly popular.

Reshaping HR practices

A critical requirement of telecommuting has shaped current HR remote working trends. Due to this, HR leaders are forced to review their usual practices.

With hiring process and onboarding move online, HR needs to invent a worker’s virtual journey. Performance management and firing practices also demand transformations today. Departing from in-person conversations, HR specialists should adjust these practices to working from home.

Cultivating virtual socialization is also one of the critical work from home trends. Therefore, 44% of the respondents indicated that lack of interaction is the most significant loss for remote teams. That is why video meetings and online ‘corridor chats’ should become regular practices now.

Time off and socialization when working from home are just as important. To this end, after-work online sessions can boost emotional bonds and productivity throughout the week.

Interestingly, paperwork digitalization is among the rising HR remote work trends too. With expanded data collection, HRs need to shorten their clerical work now.

Hence, human resources are on the verge of significant transformations. Now, they have to boost remote commandery and invent a new worker experience. So, reshaping HR practices is one of the remote work trends in 2024.

Acceleration of upskilling

Global digitalization has been recently transforming the jobs and skills needed. A sudden shift to working from home speeded up these processes and made them more urgent.

Remote work trends stats say that at least 50% of the workforce will need significant reskilling by 2025. Thus, upskilling is going to be one of the most profound remote working trends of the near future.

Now, employers have to shift away from specific roles towards the skills needed for a company. Thus, managers need to craft a skill set to help employees to respond to the changes better. Notably, remote workers should also improve interpersonal skills if they've ever worked from home.

Source: McKinsey & Company

Therefore, quick adoption of upskilling programs is the next step for businesses. Undoubtedly, it is also the future of work trends. Companies should organize internal training for personnel to help them gain crucial skills.

Accelerated digitalization of educational programs is among current telecommuting trends too. WEF found that 42 percent of respondents plan to speed up upskilling digitalization in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will optimize learning efforts by making them more personalized and cheaper.

Source: HowNow

To sum up, it is vital to encourage personnel to get cross-functional knowledge now. Accordingly, organizations should invest heavily in the digitalization of training programs. Obviously, it is the future of work trends.

Further reading: How to Build an eLearning Website Like Udemy or Coursera

Creating a remote work policy

If you want to lower any risks rising along with telecommuting trends and make working from home more productive, then you need to develop a distance work policy. With the help of this policy, you can solve serious company immigration problems or manage changes in tax jurisdiction and legal issues. Therefore, there're guarantees that you will protect yourself or your employees remotely from undesirable risks.

Can a telecommuting policy help you achieve your business goals? Certainly, it can. For example, the telecommuting policy opened up new opportunities for the redistribution of funds in companies and their use for various purposes of business owners (increasing dividends, increasing capacity, and attracting new employees). This policy determines the workers responsible for the work process, ensures proper working conditions, and implements the company rules.

Moreover, the telecommuting policy facilitates communication between remote workers and employers. This also allows for organizing a hybrid work schedule. Then, it sets a constant length of working hours and allocates responsibilities so that the workforce can avoid questions or unnecessary conversations.

Meanwhile, KPMG states that 89 percent of companies already employ a distance work policy or consider it the best option for themselves. So, these statistics demonstrate that most companies aim for a work environment where working from home is a significant element in the future.

Moving to human-oriented organizational culture

Corporate values are also transforming as the business has undergone significant changes in the last few years. Curiously, remote managers admit defining a unique team culture as one of the most complex tasks nowadays. However, it is one of the top remote work trends in 2024.

Source: Remote-How

Once upon a time, company culture prioritized staff performance, but now, worker safety is foremost. With that, performance metrics are becoming more flexible. In this way, people-centric business orientation is becoming another remote work trend.

Shifting to work remotely has undergone changes in leadership styles as well. Thus, managers should be able to build strong communications with remote staff first. No less critical for them to have good listening skills now. With this ability, managers can make remote employees feel engaged and valued.

To keep a unique culture while working from home, companies tend to meet the staff needs better. To that end, they offer extended medical, social, financial, and emotional help now.

You may also like: What Is the Best Methodology for Your Project, Agile or Waterfall?

US national trends in remote work

Working from home has become a critical demand for millions of Americans recently. Yet, the crisis has not affected all the job sectors equally. Because of different access to work remotely, a cross-sector imbalance has occurred.

Now, let’s check what are the specific US national trends for working remotely.

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Telecommuting adaptivity

McKinsey & Company reports that IT is one of the domains with the highest potential for working from home in the US. They keep 58-69% of their productivity, shifting to new US trends.

Meanwhile, sectors with the lowest telecommuting adaptivity remain 7-20% effective. Notably, construction, food & accommodation services, and agriculture are among the most vulnerable fields.

Source: McKinsey & Company

Trends in job losses

It is no surprise that industries with employees who work from home experience lower employment losses now. Obviously, working from home will become more and more popular.

McKinsey & Company reports that the demand for employees in STEM occupations may grow more compared to previous years.

Lasting remote work trends also put certain people at higher risk in certain professions. Because consumer behavior changes during the crisis, some positions may not stay as mass as before.

Thus, McKinsey & Company notified that the significant negative impact of the pandemic would affect workers in food service (Spain, Japan), customer service and sales (US, Germany), agriculture (China, India), warehousing (Japan, China), and office support (US, Spain, UK, France, Germany, and Japan).

Source: McKinsey

Glassdoor also determined the jobs that will suffer the most due to work from home future. They are, for instance, audiologists, event coordinators, product demonstrators, and opticians.

Source: Glassdoor

Stock market tendencies and telecommuting

Similarly, remote work trends have influenced stock market performance. To compare, the telecommuting-friendly sectors had a 7% stock market increase in previous years. Meanwhile, the most exposed companies showed an 18% stock market decline during this period.

Recommended reading: Key Trends in Digital Marketplace Industry in 2024

In conclusion

Today, working from home is becoming the new norm, whether we like it or not. So, running your business these days, you should adjust to the pros and cons of telecommuting. Thus, structured communications, business humanization, and upskilling are must-haves in 2024.

We hope our list of the latest remote work trends will help you adapt better to the new reality. The Codica team wishes you to reap all the benefits of telecommuting and doing your business now.

Do you have an idea for a web product and looking for a remote development team to bring it to life? Codica’s experts would love to help you! Contact us for a free quote.